Definitive Report - Report No 85, 1966

Case No 406 (United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland) - Complaint date: 03-JUL-64 - Closed

1. 196. The complaint of the British Guiana Trades Union Council was addressed directly to the I.L.O on 3 July 1964. On 29 July 1964 the Secretary-General of the United Nations transmitted to the I.L.O a copy of the complaint which had been addressed to him on 21 July 1964 by the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions. Observations on the complaint were furnished by the Government of the United Kingdom by a communication dated 15 January 1965. The foregoing documents were before the Committee at its meeting in May 1965, when the Committee submitted an interim report to the Governing Body in paragraphs 305 to 323 of its 83rd Report, which was approved by the Governing Body on 28 May 1965, in the course of its 162nd Session.
2. 197. The Government of the United Kingdom has ratified the Right of Association (Agriculture) Convention, 1921 (No. 11), the Right of Association (Non-Metropolitan Territories) Convention, 1947 (No. 84), and the Right to Organise and Collective Bargaining Convention, 1949 (No. 98), and has declared their provisions to be applicable, without modification, to British Guiana. The Government of the United Kingdom has also ratified the Freedom of Association and Protection of the Right to Organise Convention, 1948 (No. 87), and has declared it applicable to British Guiana with modifications.

A. A. The complainants' allegations

1. 198. The complaint relates to events alleged to have taken place in British Guiana prior to the election of the present Government in December 1964 and is directed against the former Government, in which the People's Progressive Party (P.P.P.) held power, the Progressive Youth Organisation (P.Y.O.) connected with that party, and what the complainant refers to as the " government and party sponsored and financed trade union, known as the Guiana Agricultural Workers' Union (G.A.W.U.) ". According to the allegations, the G.A.W.U. President, Mr. Harry Lall, was a P.P.P member of the Legislative Assembly; he was detained by the Governor on 13 June 1964, since which date Mr. Macie Hamid, another P.P.P legislator but not a member of G.A.W.U, had acted as its President, while another non-union member, Mr. George Henry, who was removed from the legislature by the courts, became its Vice-President.
2. 199. The allegations were analysed in full in paragraphs 308 to 316 of the Committee's 83rd Report. They may be more briefly summarised as follows. Since a stoppage of work began at Leonora estate on 17 February 1964, Ministers and members of the former Government, P.P.P, P.Y.O and G.A.W.U are alleged to have waged a campaign of terror against sugar workers belonging to the Man-Power Citizens' Association (M.P.C.A.) affiliated to the complaining organisation, in order to prevent them working, 24 workers being murdered and many injured and 134 workers' houses being burnt and 540 more destroyed or seriously damaged. All these events were said to have flowed from the fact that G.A.W.U, backed by the former Government, called a series of strikes in order to force the sugar employers to recognise them as bargaining agent instead of M.P.C.A, which had a majority membership. At one stage 4,000 workers were terrorised into leaving M.P.C.A but 3,000 of them rejoined, whereupon the former Government is alleged to have embarked on a plan to destroy factories and sugar crops and enforce work stoppages, so that protection had to be given by United Kingdom troops. The complainants describe the various methods employed by the agitators. From 19 February 1964 onwards, the four unions (including M.P.C.A.) having bargaining agreements with the Sugar Producers' Association, as well as the Chamber of Commerce, pressed the Governor to bring in United Kingdom troops and demanded the issue of emergency regulations, a course which the former Minister of Home Affairs, Mrs. Jagan, refused to adopt until 22 May 1964. On 16 May 1964 a commission of inquiry had been set up but, as it consisted of P.P.P sympathisers, the complainants challenged it in the courts and it adjourned sine die. On 13 June 1964 the Governor assumed emergency powers.
3. 200. In a communication dated 15 January 1965 the Government of the United Kingdom stated that a new government had been formed in British Guiana following elections in December 1964 and that the Ministers mentioned in the allegations were no longer in office. The new Government in British Guiana, regretting the failure of the previous Government to furnish observations, said that it could not itself offer satisfactory comments without a detailed investigation, which would not, in view of the lapse of time, produce conclusive evidence, but that it intended to promote the implementation of the applicable provisions of the Conventions relating to freedom of association.
4. 201. At its meeting in May 1965 the Committee recalled that in earlier cases' it has taken the view, when it has had before it allegations relating to violations of trade union rights by an earlier government, that, although the government in power could obviously not be held responsible for events which took place under its predecessor, it is clearly responsible for any continuing consequences which they may have had since its accession to power.
5. 202. The Committee observed that, in the absence of any observations on the merits of the matters alleged, it was not possible for it to say whether such continuing consequences of the events alleged still existed. For example, it was still unaware of the relative positions and relationships of M.P.C.A and G.A.W.U and the Sugar Producers' Association; it did not know what might have ensued from the setting up of a commission of inquiry by the previous Government; and it did not know, in the event of the allegations being well founded, what steps, if any, the present Government might have taken or intended to take to indemnify the dependants of M.P.C.A members stated to have been murdered because they refused to join a strike encouraged by the previous Government itself or to indemnify workers whose homes were destroyed. The Committee recalled that, in Case No. 260 relating to Iraq, where the observations of the Government concerned had been insufficient for the Committee to be able to decide whether events occurring under a previous government had continued to have consequences under a successor government, the Committee had requested the Government concerned to furnish fuller observations before it formulated its conclusions to the Governing Body.
6. 203. Further, having before it information to the effect that two members of G.A.W.U had been charged with offences of sedition committed on 7 March and 2 April 1964, the Committee took the view that the judgments of the courts inquiring into these incidents might afford information as to the general situation then existing which would be of assistance to the Committee in formulating its conclusions.
7. 204. In these circumstances the Committee, in paragraph 323 of its 83rd Report, recommended the Governing Body to request the Government to be good enough to furnish fuller observations on the matters alleged in the complaint and also to furnish copies of the judgments given in the proceedings against the two members of G.A.W.U referred to above.
8. 205. These recommendations were approved by the Governing Body on 28 May 1965, in the course of its 162nd Session, and the request for further observations and information was conveyed to the Government of the United Kingdom by a letter dated 3 June 1965. The Government furnished further information by a communication dated 11 October 1965 enclosing observations prepared by the present Government of British Guiana.
9. 206. The Government of British Guiana states once again that it would not be possible to offer satisfactory comments on the individual matters referred to in the complaint by the British Guiana T.U.C without a detailed investigation which would not, in view of the lapse of time, produce conclusive evidence. It says that it is not aware of any continuing consequences and wishes to state categorically that there has been no interference by the present Government with the operation of the trade union movement in the country contrary to the Right of Association (Agriculture) Convention, 1921 (No. 11), the Right of Association (Non-Metropolitan Territories) Convention, 1947 (No. 84), and the Right to Organise and Collective Bargaining Convention, 1949 (No. 98), or to the Freedom of Association and Protection of the Right to Organise Convention, 1948 (No. 87), as applied with modifications.
10. 207. The present Government of British Guiana gives the following further information.
11. 208. G.A.W.U failed to gain recognition but instructed its members to return to work on 27 July 1964. On 24 August 1964 G.A.W.U renewed its application for recognition because the registration of M.P.C.A had been cancelled by the Registrar of Trade Unions on the ground that it had wilfully violated section 35 of the Trade Unions Ordinance. M.P.C.A appealed to the court, which ruled, in September 1964, that the cancellation of registration had been " wrongful, mistaken, ultra vires and void ". On 19 September 1964 the Sugar Producers' Association informed G.A.W.U, accordingly, that its recognition of M.P.C.A continued unchanged. On 27 February 1965 G.A.W.U applied for recognition to two individual sugar companies, but they replied that questions of that kind could be dealt with only by the Sugar Producers' Association. G.A.W.U made no further demand for recognition. It appears that over 50 per cent of sugar industry employees are members of M.P.C.A.
12. 209. The appointment of the commission of inquiry set up by the previous Government (see paragraph 199 above) was revoked by the Governor in February 1965, as advised by the present Government.
13. 210. On the question of indemnification of those persons who had suffered during the disturbances which followed the strike, the present Government has appointed a Committee comprising 12 persons under the chairmanship of Sir Stanley Gomes, a retired Chief Justice, with the following terms of reference: " to examine generally the conditions of persons displaced and otherwise affected by the disturbances in 1962, 1963 and 1964, and to determine and advise to what extent such persons should be assisted to return to normal life ".
14. 211. The two members of G.A.W.U prosecuted for sedition were acquitted on 30 July 1965.
15. 212. It appears to the Committee from the wording of the particulars of the offences that copies of the proceedings might make available information of assistance to it in its examination of the factual allegations.

The Committee's recommendations

1. 213. In these circumstances the Committee recommends the Governing Body:
   • (a) to note that the present Government of British Guiana has again stated through the Government of the United Kingdom that it could not comment satisfactorily on the individual matters referred to in the complaint without a detailed investigation which would not, in view of the lapse of time, produce conclusive evidence;
   • (b) to draw attention to the fact that allegations to the effect that, in the course of the strike called by G.A.W.U and stated to have been backed by the previous Government of British Guiana, 24 non-strikers were murdered and many injured and 134 members' houses were burnt and 540 more were destroyed or seriously damaged have not been refuted either by the previous Government or the present Government of British Guiana;
   • (c) to note that the present Government of British Guiana has set up a committee whose terms of reference are to examine generally the conditions of persons displaced and otherwise affected by the disturbances in 1962, 1963 and 1964 and to determine and advise to what extent such persons should be assisted to return to normal life;
   • (d) to express the hope that the question of indemnification of the persons affected, or their dependants, as the case may be, by the events referred to in subparagraph (b) above will be examined by the committee now set up by the present Government of British Guiana;
   • (e) to note that the cancellation of the registration of the Man-Power Citizens' Association during the term of office of the previous Government has now been set aside by the courts as having been " wrongful, mistaken, ultra vires and void " and that the union continues to be recognised by the British Guiana Sugar Producers' Association.